1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a portable or removable accessory platform that is conveniently secured to permanently attached deck hardware such as a mooring cleat on a boat, barge or other type of buoyant vessel.
2. Description of Related Art
The owners and operators of pleasure craft and relatively small fishing boats often need or desire a convenient means to secure an accessory article or device such as a fishing rod, flag mast or special lighting for example, to a hull, gunwale or deck portion of their vessel.
Often, such vessels are highly finished with polished fiberglass, brightly painted or varnished surfaces. Understandably, the owner of such a craft is reticent to disturb his expensive and artistic finish for the purpose of temporarily securing an occasionally used accessory. Responsively, the prior art has turned to the deck mooring cleats that are permanently and securely attached to the decks or gunwales of most vessels as a convenient temporary anchor point for an accessory platform.
As boat designs, materials and construction methods have evolved, a trend has developed for removing all obstructions and discontinuities from the deck surfaces. While most boat owners still consider mooring cleats to be an essential boat accessory, newer designs have tended to recess the cleats into shallow depressions in the gunwales. Some have gone so far as to recess the cleats below the deck or gunwale surface plane and to enclose the recession or pocket with a recession cover. Such pocket dispositions of the cleat, however, severely complicates mechanical attachment of an accessory platform to the cleat.